1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to vehicle body constructions and more particularly to a jack mounting arrangement for an automotive vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An example of a prior art jack mounting arrangement for an automotive vehicle is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Provisional Publication No. 59-66650 and also shown in FIGS. 5 to 7.
In the figures, 1 is a luggage compartment floor or rear floor and 2 is a rear wheel house consisting of a wheel house inner 3 affixed to the rear floor 1 and a wheel house outer 4 affixed to a rear fender 5. A rear pillar inner 6 is affixed to the joining portions of the wheel house inner 3 and wheel house outer 4, i.e., sandwiched between the peripheral flanges 3a and 4a of the wheel house inner 3 and wheel house outer 4 and affixed to same. A floor extension plate 7 is disposed at the rear of the wheel house 2 and at a lateral end of the rear floor 1 to interconnect a lateral flange 1a of the rear floor 1 and a rear end portion of the rear pillar inner 6. A jack bracket mounting plate 8 is secured with bolts and nuts 9 to the rear end portion of the rear pillar inner 6. Affixed to a mounting portion 8a of the jack bracket mounting plate 8 is a channel-like or C-like jack bracket 10 which is disposed so as to have an opening on the outboard side thereof and adapted to partly surround a jack 11 and hold it. Affixed to the rear pillar inner 6 on the side opposite to the side on which the jack bracket mounting plate 8 is installed is a reinforcement 12 of a predetermined size. In FIG. 5, 13 is a bumper side (i.e., a lateral end portion of a rear bumper), 14 is a beaded portion of the rear fender 5 to receive the bumper side 13.
In the above arrangement, while the reinforcement 12 is affixed to the rear pillar inner 6 to reinforce the portion on which the jack bracket mounting plate 8 is installed, the jack bracket mounting plate 8 is adapted to protrude from the rear pillar inner 6 to support the jack bracket 11 which in turn supports the jack 11 of a relatively large weight. For this reason, the load of the jack 11 is sustained mainly by the rear pillar inner 6, thus causing the portion of the rear pillar inner 6 on which the jack bracket mounting plate 8 is installed to be liable to move to and fro laterally of the vehicle body, i.e., in the vehicle width directions.
Such movements subject the joining portions of the rear pillar inner 6 and floor extension plate 7 to loads opposed in the vehicle width directions and making same liable to be broken.
To prevent such movements of the rear pillar inner 6, a secondary jack bracket 15, as shown in FIG. 6, is disposed at a lateral end of the rear floor 1 to support the lower end of the jack 11 so that the lower end of the jack 11 is held stationary relative to the vehicle body. However, since the distance between the secondary jack bracket 15 and main jack bracket 10 is relatively long, such a secondary jack bracket 15 cannot effectively prevent the above described movements of the rear pillar inner 6.